Fished there again yesterday AM. I was a little worried when I woke up since it was storming to beat the band, but it cleared right up around 7 and we headed out for the lake.
Bluegills are starting to scatter pretty good, tons of weed growth in the last week. Bass were pretty agressive, but size was small. Caught three perch, hadn’t ever pulled one of those outta that lake before. Surface temp was 81°, and that was immediately after it rained.
One other thing I forgot to mention: The surface feeding disturbances were nothing short of astonishing. Large sections of the lake would just erupt and look like they were boiling for fifteen or twenty seconds, then quiet down and appear somewhere else a couple minutes later.
Not really sure what was doing it, though. I figured it was white bass slamming shad, but the only fish I made visual contact with was a largemouth about 9″ or so. Will largies school up and pound the baitfish like that, or do you think it was whites?
Gianni,I would have to bet it was white bass.I have seen them feed like this before and it can be really neat to watch them.Take care,did you find out anything about the Iowa Great Lakes?Try this http://www.vacationokoboji.com.It might help some more.
Ryan Hale
I looked into it a little bit. It seems like if all we want is a clean place to stay while we go boating and do some fishing, the best deals are to be had in Wisconsin. No firm plans yet, the little one is still too young to really get anything out of a vacation. I thought I should start looking into places to go.
As for the white bass, I’m guessing you’re right. Sure would be fun to fire up the motor and just chase the schools around the lake, but the no-wake restrictions really prevent us from doing that. At best, I could park in the middle of the area and hope they made the mistake of getting too close.
Spent the afternoon at PC on the 5th chasing those schools of whites. Caught 15 and kept a few for a fry. Those fish are TOUGH! They like to dive after you hookem and on light line they are a blast!!! Keepers are over 14″. Good fish!! 
hey R D good to hear you got them whites going. We fish them with topwater baits. We caught 30 there one evening. They are a riot, sometimes striking repeatedly until you hook one. A guy I know well caught a white bass and so did his fishing partner. (at the same time.) The first fish coming to the boat had a large musky following but he turned away at the boat. Rick had the second fish and allowed it to swin back down 2 or 3 foot. The musky came from nowhere and grabbed his white bass sideways. He did not have an opportunity to hook it and it soon let go! They estimated the musky to be 40 to 46 inches. Rick was shaking and had to have a pop to settle back down. He got excited all over again just telling me about it. 
LOL
I have been wanting to get into some whites. Is the action just in the evening? I think I will make it down on Sat. Is it possible to troll Shad raps though the area? Where is the local bait shop to pick up minnows? I’d apprieciate any info.Thanks,JD 
You can troll shad raps anywhere you wish. I haven’t tried that on PC but have caught whites on Red Rock with them. The minnows would can be had at the gas station in Palo that is on the corner where you turn toward the lake. 
Good luck and please post how you do. 
We were out from about 7AM to noon. From what I remember, the surface started boiling around 8:30 or 9, and was still going from time to time when we decided to haul out of there.
There’s a bait shop just South of the lake road at the four-way stop in Palo. The bad part is, I don’t know what their hours are, as usually the bait shop is closed. It’s in the parking lot of the gas station there, and the station always has crawlers. Don’t know if they also carry minnows, but it’s worth a shot.
Where we saw the most surface activity was in the Southwest corner by the park entrance, and up in the Northwest end between the ramps by the power lines.
Let us know how you do. I might try to make it out Sunday afternoon.
Darn it, beat me to it!
Pleasant Creek does have quite the phenomena with all those big whites chasing shad. They will do it sporadically throughout the day, but near sunset it’s like clockwork. All the deep water areas of the lake will have white busting the surface.
Hey Chitwood, I’ve had a big muskie follow during those white bass frenzies as well. It was also the biggest muskie I’ve seen on that lake. I think the bigger ones are pretty dormant much of the day, then get a big easy meal following those feeding frenzies at dusk. I’ve tried to follow the white bass packs throwing muskie baits a couple times to no avail. I’m sure I look pretty silly to all the other people throwing baits for white bass.
Last time I tried this, I saw two largemouths in with the school of whites when a feeding frenzy took place right next to my boat. Pretty cool.
Setthehook, the white bass are loads of fun. This kind of started with us about 4 or 5 years ago when I caught 9 largemeouth one evening feeding just like the white bass do. The following morning my son and I chased the schools and caught 26 Large mouth on top water baits. The largest LMB I caught out of the white bass groups was a decent 3 3/4 pounder that hit within 5 feet of the boat! As Teamcrappie says, many of the whites in the schools now are really nice sized and fight like crazy. My whole family is hooked on this frenzy. If you’re out there and see a blue Ranger 488 with a 200 Merc, be sure to say hello.
I’m pretty sure I’ve seen that blue ranger out here. Those pleasant creek whites sure are bruisers. I usually multi-species fish PC, spend an hour chasing one, and an hour another, etc. You can see me in the ugliest boat on the lake – a paint-peeling, bass-stickered, jon boat with “SeeHag” on the back. SeeHag meaning check out this hag of a boat, it’s amazing it doesn’t sink.
I got down to PC on Sat. I wasn’t around the computer to get any advice before I went and I could of used the info. We threw spinnerbaits for bass in the afternoon and landed a few 16″. We were down at the dam when the whites started. I was using a med. size zara but they would just knock it around. I also had hits on a white buzz bait but couldn’t get hooked up. I tried a chart twister without any luck. Boy was I frustrated, all that action and not a one in the boat. I’ll be back this weekend armed with a little help from you guys and give it another shot. The DNR boys that checked us out said there was a good walleye bite three weeks ago. Did any of you get in on that? I was in the off-white Starcraft with blue lettering and classic fifty merc. If you see me Sat stop and show me how to catch those whites! Thanks,JD
Buzzbait or a spook sounds like a cool way to fish them, but I don’t know if they make a panfish-sized version of either, which is what I would want for chasing whites.
My ‘go to’ lures for whites are
1. the smallest rat-l-trap they make, in white
2. silver in-line mepps spinner, small (3″)
3. beetle-spin w/ white 2″ grub on a 1/16th jig
I would like to get some small chugger type baits and try those out. The smallest I have now are 3″, and I think even with undersized hooks the whites would have trouble getting hold.
As far as this weekend, I’ll be on vacation with the family. Hopefully after I get home I can bounce out there after work and give it a go. I’ll be the one in a blue/white Bayliner 15′ bass boat with a Mariner 50 (believe it or not, there’s another guy with a similar boat, but he’s got an 85).
Gianni they do make smaller versions of the buzz and spook and also small chuggers.I believe terminator and strike king make the buzzers,then there the zura puppie and rebel makes small chuggers and and the ones w/ the prop on back forget what there called.They are 1/16 to 1/8 oz I use them for smallmouth.I caught some of them whites w/ a 3″stickbait w/ a wide wobble throwing right into the school.Fun to catch but don’t taste good.
Quote:
fun to catch but don’t taste good.
I would probably echo that, but that’s what crappies are for. A couple few years ago I found a great crappie lake (40 acres), and people thought I was crazy to fish it so hard when I was limited to electric motor, etc. That winter it winterkilled really bad, and the crappie bite was nonexistent for two years after. A lot of scuttlebut about it being back strong this year, so if I really wanted to put some fish on ice, I’d go chase them or head down and do some jug-fishing for eater cats down at c’ville.
As it is, Palo is the most convenient body of water (outside the Cedar here in town), it’s clean, it’s in a really nice park, and whites are a great fish-every-cast way to spend an afternoon. Hope to see some of you fellas out there when I get back from vacation.
I was out there last night BBQ’ing with the fam, so I took the boat and fished for about an hour or so afterward. Pretty limited success, whites weren’t active that I could see.
My wife and drove out last evening just to look. We sat in the truck for about 45 minutes and never did see any breaking fish? I am sure the activity will pick up again. It was kind of windy so we may have had activity we just couldn’t see further out. I watched 4 or 5 boats in three different areas that were probably looking but didn’t see them catch anything? 
Hoping they will reorganize for another go.
Fished palo this morning for a little bit before the rain rolled through. Couple little gills on the weed edges, not good action by any means, even for the gills.
Something was chasing minnows on the top and made the mistake of getting a little close. This time I was ready with a 1 1/2 inch rattletrap in the bottom of the boat. I tossed it and it got bit, but unfortunately the ultralight I was using was too limber to get a good hookset. Came off about halfway to the boat.
Spent some time throwing a frog into the emergent weeds, but no luck there either.
About 9:30 the sky turned black – I mean scary black. We turned and headed for the ramp, and by the time we got there the wind had kicked up to about 30mph and the sky looked like it was about to open up and dump on us. We got the boat out, and as we were leaving the park it pretty much cleared right off and never even rained at the lake from what I could see. A fella on the ramp said he called his wife and the radar said it would just barely clip the lake out there. I asked my daughter if she wanted to wait it out, but she wanted to get home.
Hit the lake again Sat morning with my daughter. Fishing was slow as all-get-out. We did find a spot where we were drifting the weededge and getting bit. Nearby there were two fellas in an alumacraft circling a marker bouy and catching perch & bigger ‘gills. They invited us over, but I thought it would be rude to accept and fish right on top of them, even if invited.
While were were holding the weededge, a boat with three trollers in it darned near ran us over. I could have seriously reached out and grabbed their boat. As they passed, I got the old ‘oops sorry’ line, even though one would think that at <2mph you could look where you're going once every ten minutes and not run anyone over.
Anyways, these guys in the alumacraft were packing it in, and the trollers were heading in to take over their spot. Having witnessed the incident, the alumacraft waved us in and let us pick up where they left off. Thanks if they read this, my daughter had a great time. 
This is really the first time I’ve caught a lot of perch out there, and really any of decent size. Pretty happy about that, as there is only one or two other good perch lakes in the state and they’re too darned far to drive.
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